December 10, 2012

Pienaar’s goal – a long ball forward is flicked on, and Lloris shouts and comes to claim it. Caulker clears straight to an Everton player (Naismith) and, after another attempted clearance, Everton force the ball wide to Coleman. His cross falls nicely for Pienaar to plant his header into the far corner.

As a long ball is flicked on, Lloris screams at his defence and comes to claim the ball.

Caulker panics and clears the ball. Could this be related to what we were saying last week about the chopping and changing of Lloris and Friedel, two goalkeepers who would behave very differently in this situation?

Naismith attempts to get the ball back into the box; it is cleared by Vertonghen, but straight to Naismith again, who forces it wide to Coleman.

Dempsey has tucked in, meaning that Coleman is unmarked. Vertonghen comes out to meet him, but he is able to stand a cross up.

Pienaar meets it on the charge, untracked by Walker and Sigurdsson (?).

His header is low and powerful and bounces up awkwardly to beat Lloris and go into the bottom corner.

Jelavic’s goal – another long ball is flicked on in acrobatic fashion by Vellios, and Jelavic sneaks in behind Gallas to strike low and first time beneath Lloris’ grasp.

Everton take a quick throw-in and Gibson has space to receive the ball.

Gibson launches a long ball into the box towards the substitute, Vellios.

Vellios competes and helps the ball on…

…and whilst Gallas raises his arm to appeal for offside, Jelavic beats the trap and finishes first time beyond Lloris.

He is afforded far too much room by Gallas and Walker and his first time effort goes in, despite Lloris getting desperately close to saving it.

Looked to me like Hudd trailed Fellaini into the box, and Siggurdsson sat at the top of the box, then when Coleman’s cross comes in, they just let Pienaar waltz right in. You can see Hudd’s ‘fro right by Fellaini’s ‘fro hahahaha (in the pic above).

I’m starting to worry that Caulker is just… not very clever. Ignoring Lloris at 3-0 vs West Ham was annoying but not disastrous; this time it cost us 3 points though, no question. Obviously he’s young and will make mistakes while learning, but he’s not very comfortable on the ball- tends to wallop it into touch even when there’s time to get it under control and distribute, like Kaboul/ Vertonghen would.

Irrespective of who is in goal, if the keeper shouts that he is going to claim it, then you as a defender need to listen and trust your keeper. I blame Caulker for the first with no blame to Loris and obviously Gallas for the second.

That second goal was unlucky. We were slow closing down the crosses generally, but Dempsey (I think) does try to get out there and block, the ball drops in front of the Everton player so Caulker (?) really can’t just knock him out of the way to stop him flicking it on. I guess you could say he should be closer, but that’s right on the edge of the penalty box. And the ball then flies really fast into that danger zone where gallas would be kicking it towards his own goal.

Basically that’s just really bad luck that they a) managed to get the first cross in and it was decent, b) the guy got that jammy connection on it so it flew right across the penalty spot, c) Jelavic is a good finisher.

The bigger problem is this withdrawing and not closing down these long balls before they’re delivered. When their midfielders/wingers get to stop the ball, look up, and place their crosses – time after time – you’re going to get punished.

The ball seemed to bounce around the area for an age before the first goal… clearly, Caulker was to blame for not trusting Lloris to claim… but, at least a couple of other Spurs players had a chance to clear the ball and didn’t… it was a total shambles, almost as if we thought that 15 minutes of controlling the game meant that it was already won…

It’s not as if it’s the first time, either: as has been pointed out, elsewhere, if all the games this season had finished after 80 minutes, we’d be top of the league…

The first goal, and therefore the loss, was mainly Caulker’s fault. I also thought that he looked very nervous and unsteady in the Europa game midweek. However, I also think that he was to blame for the second. The main problem here is a lack of urgency in closing down Gibson but a defender should never allow room for an overhead kick in the box. Pressure on the back of the attacker will stop him being able to launch into it without fouling him. If you don’t do this, then you need to be brave enough to put your head in where it hurts! If Caulker had done this, he would have won a freekick for dangerous play.

The problem was from Caulker and despite being a solid player seemed to be nervous in the last few games and it seems he is much more confident with Friedel than Lorris.Generally, I feel we have a problem defending so deep and giving our opposition a chance and it has lots to do in my opinion of the zone you allow play at critical parts of a game. In this light, Spurs allow the opposition to play in their last quarter(box area)in the last 10 minutes instead of pushing away from their box. This is fundamental problem. If you defend so deep and allow in crosses into your box, the opposition will have a chance and until this is sorted, we stand to see more goals conceded in the last 10 minutes and spoil whatever work you have done all through the game.Most good teams will play the last 10 minutes in the opposition half and nullify the opposition in the midfield. Siggy and Huddlestone have a big problem defensively and don’t hold onto the ball. Adebayor never troubled the central defenders and when Lorris kicked out the defenders were unchallenged and easily started another attack. If this is sorted, we will be back on top as the guys are playing well and should be winning more games easily.

Of course Caulker should be given more time.. but how much is the question.. Was at the game and could hear LLoris shouting for the ball. We are still in with a shout for 4th spot and a massuce 4 games coming up.

Can’t wait to see Benny back and Vetonghen in the middle with preferably Kaboul. Not sure long term injuries ever come back the same. but how’s about:Lloris, Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, BennyLennon, Sandro, Parker, BaleAdebayor,Defoe

the subs that avb made in that game lost us 3 points.we were in total control of the game he made changes that weakened the the team and allowed everton back into a game we had totally dominated for 90 minutes.did the same v reading but we got away with that one, before reading had three clear cut chances to level at 2 each.not convinced about avb. have my doubts, hope im wrong.coys forever

The game was not dominated by Spurs it was relatively even with Everton dominating mroe if anything, although Everton were the home side so you would expect it from them. Dempseys’s goal took a fortunate to give the lead in the first place, no side created any real chances other than the goals that were scored. It did look like Everton had run out of ideas after the first goal, but the last 5 minuted was Everton pushing on for the equaliser as you would expect. A draw would probably been a fair result.